Chapter 1

10-year-old Nory Horace who is trying to turn herself into a black kitten for a test at Sage Academy, in which her father's the headmaster there. The test is called The Big Test and it's the entrance/acceptance exam to Sage Academy. As Nory focuses on becoming a black kitten, she worries and then turns into a perfectly formed black kitten. Alongside the kitten form she's in, there are also beaver parts in the kitten and Bitten-Nory begins eating up Stone Horace's library shelves and books. She becomes what she calls a "bitten", an animal that's a black kitten but has some beaver features, and the animal minds takes over her human mind.

Chapter 2

Hawthorne Horace, the oldest of the Horace siblings, finds Bitten-Nory in Stone Horace's office and yells at it to turn into normal human form-Nory. It works and Hawthorn reminds Nory that her magic is not appropriate for Sage Academy, as the academy doesn't want so-called "wonky magic" on its grounds. Both clean up the office and Hawthorn calls a carpenter to fix some destroyed items in the office. They then agree to blame the mess on Dalia's rabbits. Dalia Horace is a Fuzzy and the middle of the Horace siblings and she owns "two bats, three toads, a ferret, a toucan, a pair of mice, and twelve rabbits".

The book then gives a simple lowdown on what happened to Nory before her "wonky" Fluxer magic came to her when she was 10: she went to an elementary school in the town of Nutmeg called Woody Dale with her friends. 

The book then describes the five Fs of the magic world: Flyers, Fluxers, Flares, Fuzzies, and Flickers. Flyers could fly like flying animals, Fluxers could shape-shift into regular animals, Flares conjured fire, Fuzzies could tame animals easily and talk to them, and Flickers can turn things invisible or turn themselves invisible.

However, Nory's magic isn't like her two older siblings and Hawthorn constantly lies to his father about Nory's unfortunate Fluxing accidents he's been a witness to.

The day after Nory's unfortunate "Bitten-Nory" incident, Stone Horace leaves for Sage Academy early for acceptance tests and Nory, Dalia, Hawthorn, and Dalia's rabbits have breakfast. Nory tries to go to The Big Test with her "lucky purple jeans"  on and her hair braided, but Hawthorn insists that she wear a dress (as Sage Academy is very fancy and tough to get in to).

Nory is on her own in the line for Sage Academy acceptance test as Hawthorn has an unknown summer job and "Dalia had an appointment with her math tutor". In front of Nory in line is a Flare named Lacey Clench whose father is taking her to the Sage Academy Big Test. When it is Lacey's turn for The Big Test, she fails miserably.

Chapter 3

Nory is after Lacey and she enters the Sage Academy Hall of Performance and Magic. She walks onstage, states her name, and fails the Flicker and Flare and Flyer and Fuzzy tests. Stone Horace then announces that Nory is a Fluxer.

Chapter 4

Nory turns into a black kitten, but then the examination goes awry as Kitten-Nory turns into a hybrid of a snake and a kitten: a "snitten". Snitten-Nory bites Stone Horace's hand and then, under Girl-Nory's control, turns back into Kitten-Nory and then proceeds to turn in a dragon-kitten hybrid Nory deems a "dritten".

Dritten-Nory then lights the matches required for the Flare test and flies around the Hall of Magic and Performance like a Flyer. Mr. Puthoor, a Fuzzy, and Stone Horace then deem Nory unacceptable for Sage Academy.

Chapter 5

At dinner after Sage Academy Acceptance Day, Margo, Nory and Dalia and Hawthorn's aunt, appears on request of Stone Horace to take Nory to Dunwiddle Magic School to perfect her upside-down magic. Margo, a Flyer who is runs a taxi service (she is the taxi herself) called the "Double M Flying Taxi" service, yells at Stone for not caring about his children before she takes Nory with her to the town of Dunwiddle.

When Nory and Margo arrive in Dunwiddle, Aunt Margo's address seen in the book is "Number 14 Clover Street in Dunwiddle".

Chapter 6

Margo then fixes up Nory's room and takes her grocery shopping the next day. Dinner is takeout pizza and they discuss Elliott Cohen and his mother who works at a "hospital a couple towns over".

The next morning, Margo has already taken Mrs. Cohen to work and Nory meets Upside-Down Flare Elliott Cohen and wishes "she just be at Sage Academy". At Dunwiddle Magic School, Elliott points out Upside-Down Flyer Andres Padillo and his older sister, Fluxer Carmen Padillo. Elliott then tells of Andres' magic backstory: he flew up the day before his 10th birthday during math class and the fan in the classroom was running, so Andres spun around in the fan three times before proceeding to float in the air all the time.

Then he proceeds to show Nory his power behind a bush because he's embarrassed about it. Elliott's power is that he can "flare and then it freezes.... or else it doesn't flare at all". Elliott then drags Nory's butt towards school and tells her school facts and warns her about Pepper Phan. The Upside-Down Flare then tells the Upside-Down Fluxer that when Pepper turned 10 " 'Stampede, howling, peeing on the carpet. Our neighbors have goats, and Pepper made them stampede through the fence. And I know these other people who used to have a pet dog. Pepper scared it so badly it hid for two weeks. Then when it finally came home, it was always trying to bite people. Pepper terrified that dog into permanent meanness. The people had to give the dog away.' " (It's later shown in book 3 that the first animal Pepper Fierced was the Phan family's Golden Retriever named Toothpaste.)

Chapter 7

Nory still goes inside, even though Elliott abandons her for his Flare friends and warns her about Andres and Pepper. As Nory wanders Dunwiddle Magic School, she gets lost and stumbles upon a Supply Closet where she meets an unnamed Pepper Phan of the Fierces. Pepper, unnamed, then tells Nory that " 'Three eighth-grade Flickers made me invisible. Then they tossed me in [a locker] without anyone noticing. They just left me there' " and Flicker Principal Gonzalez finding her for her reason for finding the Supply Closet and hiding there. With seconds left to class, both girls find " 'Room 151... Ms. Starr's class ' ". and Nory warns the unknown Fierce that they need to "watch out for a kid named Pepper" when, ironically, Nory is actually talking to Pepper herself.

Ms. Eloise Starr, an Upside-Down Fuzzy who makes animals speak English, notices both Nory and Pepper and introduces the class to them. When Nory finds out she was talking to Pepper Phan all along, she turns into a "bitten".

Chapter 8

Bitten-Nory "chewed up one of Ms. Starr's paperbacks and knocked over the sunflowers on her desk. She ran three times around the classroom and then decided to build another beaver lodge. It was only when Bitten-Nory tried to gnaw on Ms. Starr's chair leg that the metal taste snapped her back to her Nory self". 

The rest of the UDM class is shocked about Nory's Fluxer power and calls it wonky. Ms. Starr chastises the class for saying that and allows Sebastian to introduce himself. Sebastian Boondogle is an Upside-Down Flicker who can see sound waves and invisible things and not turn invisible or other things invisible. Ms. Starr asks Upside-Down Fluxer Bax Kapoor to introuduce himself and Bax denies. Elliott then introduces himself and says he is a "Flare and Freezer" and demonstrates it on Ms. Starr's orders. Upside-Down Flyer Andres Padillo goes after Elliott and basically shows the class he's a living human balloon.

Fierce Pepper Phan then decides to go next and Ms. Starr uses her phone to call up two 13-year-old seventh-grade Fluxers to the UDM classroom for Pepper to show off her power. When Pepper asks them to turn into crocodiles or bears, the boy tells her that large carnivores are mastered in the students' senior year in high school and the girl says that " 'In fifth we mastered all different colors of kitten' ". Both seventh-graders each turn into an orange kitten and a calico kitten, respectively, and when Pepper tries to pet them, both kitties go nuts. Ms. Starr orders Pepper to go into the hallway until both seventh-grade Fluxers and everything else in the UDM classroom calms down.

Chapter 9

Fitter ("Shrinker") Marigold Ramos introduces herself seventh and it is noticed that a hearing aid and says that she used to live three hours away from Dunwiddle and stays with her grandparents in Dunwiddle for the UDM program. She them shrinks her chair on Ms. Starr's command to show her her power. Willa Ingeborg is after Marigold and is an Upside-Down Flare like Elliott, but can make it rain indoors ("Fluid"). Bax then shows his Upside-Down Fluxing power last and he can turn into a rock instead of any Fluxer beginner animal. (We later find out he can actually turn into objects and not animals.)

Chapter 10

At lunch, Elliott introduces Nory to his three Flare friends: Lacey Clench, Zinnia Clarke, and Rune, who call themselves "The Sparkies". Nory instantly recognizes Lacey Clench and points out that she failed the Sage Academy test, when she really did pass and decided not to go to stay with her friends. Lacey, Zinnia, and Rune ridicule Elliott's ice power and Nory turns into a skunk-elephant/"skunkephant" in rage and Pepper accidentally Fierces Skunkephant-Nory as she she walks toward her new classmates, leading the Dunwiddle Magic school cafeteria to be filled with skunk spray.

Chapter 11

During recess, the cafeteria is closed and Dunwiddle students practice their powers. The UDM class blames Nory for the "skunkephant incident" and ignore her the whole day.

At Aunt Margo's pizza is being ordered and Margo and Nory eat an apple before the pepperoni pizza arrives. Nory gets annoyed and tells her aunt about everything on Day 1 at Dunwiddle Magic School. Margo then suggests a flight to calm down and Nory agrees. Margo then shows off Nory to her Flyer friends before both go to bed.

The next day, nobody in the UDM class ever talks to Nory. When Ms. Starr suggest interpretive dance to study poetry and not to write essays, the first poem they do is called "The Lost Mermaid". Nory tries to apologize to Elliott about the Sparkies during interpretive dance, but he ignores it. Suddenly, Willa's magic floods the UDM classroom and the students frown upon Nory as a bad omen.

Days pass and Ms. Starr forces the UDM class to do headstands to practice magic and Bax is sent to Nurse Riley every single time he turns into a rock and Burtlebox is applied to him to turn make into a human. When Nory and the rest are doing headstands, she questions if headstands helped Ms. Starr and the class begins guessing her Upside-Down power.

Nory continues to sent voicemails to her family in Nutmeg since day of school and Margo voicemails Stone and accuses him of telling his son and daughter not to pick up the phone, which she deems unacceptable. She then calls her boyfriend, Fluxer Figaro "Figs" Russo who owns the Dunwiddle Pharmacy and loves baking, to come to her house and meet Nory.

He does, in the form of a Saint Bernard. Then, the three head to the bakery in which three of Figs and Margo's Flare friends have opened and eat cinnamon rolls there. At the end of the meal, Dalia and Hawthorn sneak in a phone call, convincing Nory to do a reapplication test to become "normal" and reapply to Sage Academy, but Stone's arrival cuts off the phone call shortly.

Chapter 12

On Monday, it's Nory's job to take Rock-Bax to Nurse Felix Riley and she studies the magic classrooms and longs to go into the Fluxer classroom, which includes two known Fluxers in Dunwiddle Magic School: Luciana and Alastair. During headstands, Elliott is still angry at her, but convinces him to retest to go to regular fifth-grade. Both ask Ms. Starr to do so at the end of the day and she says yes, even though she says her job is for her students to accept their differences.

Chapter 13

Nory and Elliott practice at Aunt Margo's house and have cinnamon toast as a snack. Elliott flares for half a second before Nory turns into a kitten-goat/"koat". Koat-Nory destroys Margo backyard before Elliott uses his ice to make flowers turn into icicles and turn Nory back into her normal self.

Chapter 14

The following day, Sebastian screams during music that the instruments' sound waves are "like knives to the eyeballs!" Gym class also goes awry. And headstand time equals Willa getting a burn and Elliott helping her. At the end of the day Elliott and Nory get notes from Principal Gonzalez saying they will test to go to regular fifth-grade.

That afternoon, at Elliott's house, practice go awry.

The next school day, Nory finds The Box of Normal by Eugenia Throckmorton on her desk and begins reading it and tells Elliott during lunch about it. When the bell nearly rings for class to end that day, Nory runs into Pepper and finds out Pepper left The Box of Normal book on Nory's desk.

Chapter 15

Practice does not go awry the next time Nory and Elliott practice before the test on Friday.

On Wednesday, during a bowl-of-whipped-cream-and-cherries activity, Andres notices Elliott being a typical Flare since Nory is afraid of germs and calls it out. The rest of the UDM is shocked by it and also shares what they are afraid of.

On Friday, Flare Elliott Cohen and Fluxer Nory Horace test to go to regular 5th grade. 

Chapter 16

Nory and Elliott both succeed and think they are typical 5th graders. Until recess.

At recess, Lacey Clench, Zinnia Clarke, and Rune force Elliott to give them Popsicles, but the UDM class intervenes and Lacey burns Andres' leash in revenge. As Andres goes up into space, Nory turns into a bluebird, an enormous bluebird, and then Enormous-Bluebird-Nory-with-Nory's-Actual-Face. She successfully rescues Andres and Bax turns into a rope to help. Sebastian had run off during the confrontation to find Principal Gonzalez for help.

Chapter 17

Principal Gonzalez confronts Lacey about harassing the UDM class. While the UDM go back inside, Principal Gonzalez tells Nory and Elliott they are Upside-Down Magic students through and through, despite Elliott's protest.

Nory and Elliott talk for a while before Marigold runs towards them and tells them geography class will be skipped and Nurse Riley turned Bax into human again with a paste-like drug called Burtlebox.

Chapter 18

A week later, a picnic is held in Aunt Margo's backyard and all the UDM students are there. Figs too. Elliott freezes Margo's homemade lemonade, thus creating slushies. Dalia and Hawthorn call Nory about the test and Nory says she's UDM for the school year. Both older siblings sympathize with her as Nory hangs up on them and thinks she like being Upside-Down as she drinks a slushie Elliott made. Elliott, Willa, and Sebastian throw a Frisbee at each other as Sebastian complains the Frisbee's "sound waves are so bright!"

Note (04/06/2018): I borrowed this book from the library 04/06/2018-0427/2018 (I tried to find Upside-Down Magic: Dragon Overnight there, but I couldn't find it) and I thought this was a good origin story for the whole Upside-Down Magic series. My only complaint is that some of the stuff mentioned or seen in this book is not mentioned in the entire series and that new stuff is always introduced in each book.

Page originally published: 04/08/2018; updated: 02/02/2021 [added chapter dividers since I'm listening to the audiobook on Spotify, I also did grammar edits, and added terms from the later books]